Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, ON – Canadian Stage presents Ignorance, an inventive (and completely adult) puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness from Calgary's world-renonwed Old Trout Puppet Workshop. The newest production from the troupe behind the international hit Famous Puppet Death Scenes stops in Toronto as part of a critically acclaimed Canadian tour from Tuesday, November 27 to Saturday, December 15 at the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley St.). Tickets from $22 to $49 are available by phone at 416.368.3110, online at www.canadianstage.com, or in person at the box office.
“With its incredibly poignant and creative productions, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop has completely transformed the idea of what puppetry can mean for adult audiences, and in Canadian Stage’s ongoing desire to explore multiple forms of what we call theatre, this company, and this show, have a very special place,” said Matthew Jocelyn, artistic and general director. “Performers and puppets will take audiences on an incisive look at the origin of bliss – trying to explain when we lost it, where we went wrong and how we might find our way again.”
Bouncing between primitive man and modern man, urban sprawl and prehistoric cave life, Ignorance blends live performance with comedy, over-sized puppet heads, balloons, lighting, sound and video effects. Puppeteers Nicolas Di Gaetanto, Trevor Leigh and Viktor Lukawski bring various characters to life on stage, becoming extensions of the hand-crafted puppets themselves, with Judd Palmer (artistic director and co-founder of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop) as the an omniscient narrator. A bleak and harsh Garden of Eden, designed by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop creative team, with animation from four artists, is the backdrop for this imaginative performance.
The production is The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s first attempt at Open Creation - the entire show was written on the internet for all to see, with crowd-sourced comments, criticism and contributions. Learn more on the Ignorance Blog at http://www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance/. Especially relevant in a time when communities are online, Ignorance addresses the age-old “ignorance is bliss” adage and poses the question: in our quest to know so much, have we lost a connection with what actually makes us human?
Facebook: Canadian Stage
Twitter: @CanadianStage, #Ignorance
About The Old Trout Puppet Workshop:
“We struggle against terrible obstacles to create things we think might help make the cruel world slightly more hospitable to the yearning and fragile souls that inhabit it.”
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop is a motley gang of artists churning out ideas for a whole heap of unlikely things: puppet shows for adults and children, sculptures, films, music, books, plays, paintings, and pedagogy. Founded on a ranch in southern Alberta in 1999, the company has toured productions across Canada and into the United States and Europe. The Old Trouts have mounted seven main stage shows, most of which are lurking in crates at the workshop, ready to deploy. The Old Trouts also run an apprenticeship program, with technical and administrative wings, and created the puppetry for Feist’s Juno Award-winning music video, Honey, Honey. In November 2012, Old Trout co-founder and artistic director Judd Palmer was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award in Children’s literature for his book The Umbrella.
About Ignorance
November 27 to December 15; Opening night: November 27
Ignorance will be on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley St.). Performances run Monday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The performance runs 75 minutes with no intermission.
Tickets from $22 to $49 are available online, by phone at 416.368.3110 or in person at the box office. For details visit www.canadianstage.com. Discount tickets are available thanks to Sun Life Financial, Discount Ticket Programs Sponsor.
Photo: Character in Ignorance. ©2011 Old Trout Puppet Workshop.
2012-11-19
Toronto: Canadian Stage presents “Ignorance” by Calgary’s acclaimed Old Trout Puppet Workshop